[Westheim]

MILESTONE FRANCHISE WINS

Exact dates before 1993 are mostly unavailable because Chad spilled his cocoa over the notes, rendering them illegible, and I can’t reconstruct happenings otherwise.

#100 – (June 1978) – No clue at all. Kevin Hatfield saved a 2-1 win against the Loggers.
#200 – (May 2, 1980) – One of relievers Bill Craig (unlikely), Tony Lopez, Paul Cooper. A 6-5 walkoff falls into the Raccoons’ paws when Ralph Nixon is hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom 11th in a game against the Crusaders.
#300 – (August 1981) – Carlos Morán is torn up by the Loggers who lead 6-0 in the fourth inning, but the Loggers suffer a 6-run implosion, capped by a Daniel Hall grand slam in the bottom 7th before Mark Dawson walks off the Raccoons with a ninth inning RBI double, handing the win to Wally Gaston.
#400 – (April 1983) – In his debut for the Raccoons, free agent acquisition Shayne Nealon does not allow a run over six innings while the Raccoons won 6-0, with two RBI’s apiece by Matt Workman and Mark Dawson, and Jason Short walks three times.
#500 – (April 1984) – Jerry Ackerman went seven innings in a 2-2 tie in Vancouver when Cameron Green provided the margin of victory in the 3-2 win with a solo home run in the top of the eighth; Ackerman won only two games the entire season, and only 33 in his career;
#600 – (May 1985) – With Logan Evans departed after six innings, Victor Castillo and Eddie Gonzalez slap back-to-back RBI doubles off the Indians’ Alex Miranda in the eighth inning, with long-time reliever Wally Gaston earning the win for the Raccoons.
#700 – (June 1986) – Miranda and the Indians again: Odwin Garza’s major league career had few highlights, but his RBI triple was the first blow against Alex Miranda in a 5-run second inning for the Raccoons. Vicente Ruiz gives up all the Indians’ runs in an 8-3 Raccoons win.
#800 – (July/August 1987) – Kisho Saito cruises for five innings before getting roughed up, but by then the Raccoons had already scored eight runs including big home runs by Daniel Hall and Tetsu Osanai in a 10-4 win over the Aces.
#900 – (August 1988) – The Raccoons are out-hit 11-7, commit three errors, but the Canadiens leave 16 runners stranded in a 5-2 Raccoons win. Jerry Ackerman is chased trailing 2-1 in the top 6th, but a 2-run homer by Tetsu Osanai flips the score in the bottom of the same inning and gives the win to Emerson MacDonald.
#1,000 – (September 1989) – Right-hander Jason Turner has trouble all day, but somehow keeps the Loggers from scoring in a 4-0 victory in Portland, with Tetsu Osanai and Bobby Quinn driving in runs;
#1,100 – (April 1991) – David Brewer ruins Jason Turner’s day with two hits and 3 RBI that keep the game tied into the ninth inning in Vancouver before Neil Reece smashes a grand slam off pitcher Alejandro Lopez that hands the 7-3 win to reliever Roberto Carrillo.
#1,200 – (April 1992) – Raimundo Beato holds down the Falcons for five innings with a 5-0 lead before getting torn to shreds in the sixth inning. The Raccoons still hold on to win 6-4.
#1,300 – (May 1, 1993) – Boston’s Santiago Perez gives up four runs in the middle innings while Miguel Lopez goes seven shutout innings before being routed out of the eighth, but the pen holds the Titans to two runs in a 4-2 win.
#1,400 – (May 18, 1994) – After two blowout losses in the first two games in the series, the Raccoons hold the Titans tied long enough to force an extra inning escapade that is favorably resolved when Grant West’s two scoreless innings coincide with an errant pickoff throw giving Alejandro Lopez an extra base in the bottom 12th. Matt Duncan scores Lopez with a single, and the Raccoons walk off with a 6-5 victory.
#1,500 – (June 9, 1995) – All is well for Scott Wade in a matchup with the Scorpions’ young phenom Steve Rogers in this series opener, at least through eight innings. His shutout blows up in a hurry in the ninth inning, and besides Wade, Grant West, Daniel Miller, and Tony Vela are all tagged with runs as the Scorpions score a half dozen in the inning only to fall short, 7-6 Raccoons.
#1,600 – (June 23, 1996) – Somehow the Raccoons managed to work a 4-game losing streak into their 108-win campaign in 1996, and it ended with a 12-3 crushing of the Thunder (never mind the 14-2 crushing to the Raccoons in the series opener). Jose Rivera barely manages to go five innings and is hit for in the sixth, with the go-ahead run scoring just in time on a Vern Kinnear sac fly to net him the W.
#1,700 – (July 24, 1997) – Also known as Miguel Lopez’ near-no-hitter, the left-hander whiffs eight in a complete game 1-hitter that is only soiled by the Crusaders’ Armando Diéguez’ home run with one out in the eighth inning. The Raccoons win 5-1.
#1,800 – (September 18, 1998) – With the Raccoons and Knights, two desperate teams were playing out the stretch for a very long time: no scoring in the 11th inning. When Neil Reece draws a pinch-hit bases-loaded walk off the Knights’ Yosuke Memoto, 1-0, the win falls into the lap of Gabriel De La Rosa, who had pitched two innings, whiffing four.
#1,900 – (May 30, 2000) – While Randy Farley plates the winning run himself on a groundout that brings home Daniel Richardson, most of the damage in a 4-2 win over the Aces, also ending a 5-game losing streak, is done with home runs by Conceicao Guerin and Clyde Brady.
#2,000 – (August 26, 2001) – Ralph Ford pitched seven innings of 3-run ball on the final day of a dreadful homestand, as the Coons squeezed out a 4-3 win over the Aces, the winning run scoring in dramatic fashion on a Conceicao Guerin liner to center that Dick Bell appeared to catch before it bounced in, but the umpires called it a trapped ball regardless, allowing Brent McLaughlin to score the winning run;
#2,100 – (May 3, 2003) – Although Felipe Garcia gives up all four runs the Canadiens plate in this game, and actually trails 4-1 after six innings, but two Jerry Dobson errors and an Al Martin home run in the bottom 6th pull out the game as the Raccoons win this one 6-4.
#2,200 – (June 6, 2004) – A 7-4 win in a Sunday rubber game against the Crusaders only briefly interrupts the Raccoons’ general mid-season collapse. The Raccoons chase NY’s Kelly Fairchild early while Ralph Ford holds off his own demise long enough to net the win.
#2,300 – (September 3, 2005) – Brad Sheehan’s RBI double is the lone tally in the early September game against the Indians, which gives the win to Ralph Ford, who pitches seven scoreless innings.
#2,400 – (April 22, 2007) – Two roughed up starters and a lot of mid-game madness produce a clogged scoreboard in a Sunday game with the Knights. Raúl Fuentes is chased early, but the Raccoons rally from a 6-1 deficit and score ten unanswered runs to get away with an 11-6 win that is credited to Lawrence Rockburn, who pitches two innings in relief.
#2,500 – (May 2, 2008) – Ten strikeouts and one run allowed in seven innings isn’t enough for Kelvin Yates to win the big milestone, since he only got one small ball run in support. Lawrence Rockburn picks up the 2-1 win over the Loggers in relief when Nelson Chavez plates Matt Pruitt with a PH single.
#2,600 – (May 13, 2009) – Javier Cruz is struggling badly in an interleague game against the Stars, walking five in 5.1 innings. However, some early extra base magic with a Jose Correa triple and home runs by Adrian Quebell and Luke Black scratch out enough runs, combined with good defense and poor RISP hitting by the Stars, for the Raccoons to win 4-2.
#2,700 – (May 13, 2010) – Exactly one year after Cruz locked down #2,600, it was on Nick Brown to notch the next 100 on the road. Not only did he strike out seven and allowed only four hits and one unearned run against the Stars, no, he also had two base hits and an RBI for full participatory credits in the Coons’ 5-2 win over Dallas. This would also be the last of eight consecutive starts he won from Opening Day on that year.
#2,800 – (May 24, 2011) – The final line didn’t exactly tell much about how the Bayhawks whacked Jong-hoo Umberger from left to right in this game, being consistently robbed of their hard-hit balls by the Raccoons defense. Umberger made it into the eighth inning and allowed a lone run in the 3-1 Raccoons win.
#2,900 – (June 15, 2012) – Struggling offensively, the Raccoons required a ninth-inning home run by Jason Seeley off Indy’s Helio Maggessi to put this one into the W column on Draft Day. The 2-1 win went to Pat Slayton, pitching in relief.
#3,000 – (July 7, 2013) – On the last day before the All Star break, Hector Santos overcomes Melvin Dunn’s second-inning homer to eventually grab the W on seven innings of 3-hit ball against the Titans, with the Raccoons producing just enough to squeeze out another 2-1 win.
#3,100 – (August 10, 2014) – Again, Nick Brown does it all: not only does he hold the Indians to four hits and a single run over eight innings, no, he also strikes out nine and hits a bases-clearing double to procure his own 4-1 victory, and the 3,100th for the Coons.
#3,200 – (August 29, 2015) – It was only the third career start for Jeff Magnotta, and he lasted only five and a third innings, and left the game with the bases loaded in the sixth, but Ron Thrasher somehow managed to get out of the mess and protect a 2-1 lead. The Raccoons would eventually beat the Knights, 3-1.

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Ralph Ford holds the record for milestone wins with three. Only four other pitchers have picked up pairs, including two full time relievers: Nick Brown, Wally Gaston, Miguel Lopez, and Law Rockburn.

The list of players with one milestone win is long: Jerry Ackerman, Raimundo Beato, Roberto Carrillo, Javier Cruz, Gabriel De La Rosa, Randy Farley, Felipe Garcia, Emerson MacDonald, Shayne Nealon, Jose Rivera, Vicente Ruíz, Kisho Saito, Hector Santos, Pat Slayton, Jason Turner, Jong-hoo Umberger, Scott Wade, aaaaand Grant West;

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Took me a bit to search for this, but well, that’s what the time spent in the office is for, right?

Unless something else I plan to do goes galactically wrong, this is all for today, but there should be full updates on Thursday and Friday.